Brisbane's blonde moment approaches

Natalie Bochenski

Break out the peroxide: Legally Blonde The Musical is coming to Brisbane.

After wrapping up its current Sydney season, the award-winning Broadway musical will play at the QPAC’s Lyric Theatre for a limited seven-week season from March 14, 2013.

Most recently seen in Wicked as Glinda the good witch, Lucy Durack has kept her hair blonde to play Elle Woods, the fashion buyer-turned-lawyer originally created by Reece Witherspoon in the 2001 movie. She loves the character, both on screen and on the stage.

“She’s a truthful, good young woman just trying to do the best she can within the realms of what she has,” says the 30-year-old.

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“Lucy Durack is that person,” interrupts her co-star, Rob “Millsy” Mills. “She is the nicest human being in the world.”

The pair – along with fellow stars Erika Heynatz and David Harris – visited Brisbane on Monday to promote the upcoming season, and their enthusiasm for their show is reflected in their easy camaraderie.

“I love coming back to Brissie - even though you’re up here working, it always feels like a holiday,” says Harris, who plays law professor Emmett.

“And Brisbane audiences always make a night of it, which is great.”

Heynatz knows something about the show’s message of don’t judge on looks alone, having worked as a model and reality TV show host. She says it’s been thrilling to push boundaries with her first musical theatre role, as exercise queen and accused murderer Brooke Wyndham.

“It feels like a great privilege to get to play, and perform, and surprise people.”

But how was she like on set?

“Oh, she’s acting all friendly now, but she walked in with the whole supermodel thing going-on, she wouldn’t socialise,” jokes Harris, as Heynatz laughs.

“[Actually] it’s been harmonious, and everybody’s been very supportive. There are no divas.”

Mills plays Warner, Elle’s picture-perfect boyfriend who sparks her career change by ditching the ditzy for Harvard Law School and a more suitable, old-money fiancé. He’s relishing the role

“He’s such a dick,” says Mills. “And it’s not really his fault either, it’s just the world he’s grown up in. It’s that sense of entitlement that comes with wealth that I find hilarious [to play].”

The musical weaves original songs into the story of Elle’s transition from sorority girl to solicitor, with other familiar faces including Helen Dallimore as nervous nail artist Paulette, and Cameron Daddo as a Harvard professor with less than honourable intentions.

Mills also knows something about being judged; after bursting onto the entertainment scene as a finalist in the first series of Australian Idol, he copped flack over a brief fling with Paris Hilton and a pop single, Ms Vanity, before his move into musical theatre and hosting the rebooted Young Talent Time.

The 30-year-old says while he’s more mature these days, he still “absolutely” loves proving people wrong.

“I remember doing Wicked, and the reviews were really funny. They said things like ‘surprisingly good’ and ‘not that bad’,” he says.

“I relish criticism, I love getting it from my peers, but the people that don’t know me, it doesn’t really affect me at all.”

Durack says despite being onstage singing, dancing, or changing costumes for almost the entire show, each performance gives her a chance to look out at the audience and see their reaction.